story

Yakuza ∙ Prize Fighter ∙ Samurai

Makina, daughter of the Kinoshita Clan, comes from a line of warriors that came to prominence during the Age of Blood in Hingashi’s history. Her father was a renowned warrior, rumored to be worth a hundred, or even a thousand men on his own. Her mother was a beautiful woman, able to make any man’s heart skip a beat with a word. Tragically, her mother was taken by an illness shortly after her birth. As a child, Makina was not encouraged to learn the ways of war, by her father’s choosing. Instead she was taught to be a ‘flower of the court’, schooled in dance and musical instruments by her tutors. She would perform for household guests who came to visit her Lord father and request his aid in their battles. While she did enjoy this, it was never entirely to her liking. Instead she found great joy rummaging around outside of the family home in the surrounding forests or even inside the garden with the sons of retainers. Sometimes her and the boys would play games like Samurai and Bandits, leading to small battles with sticks. She would always be defeated by the boys who received tutoring from the warriors of their clans, and this angered her greatly. Fortunately for her, after one such defeat, her father had been watching. He approached the small, bruised Makina, much to the horror of the retainers’ sons and told her that he would teach her how to fight.

More bruises followed Makina when she began her one-on-one training with her father. He was strict, teaching her both techniques and the history of battle. She finally discovered what she was born to do. Every lesson, even the boring ones, were not lost on her. The young warrior was taught how to use every weapon her father knew how to use, including his fists. Lord Kinoshita was well-versed in many martial arts, enough to have developed his own style which contained techniques involving kicks, sweeps, throws, boxing, and grappling. This style of his, he passed onto Makina, who took to this form of fighting particularly well. After her father was satisfied with her progress, he begrudgingly allowed her to accompany him in battle. While the wars of the Age of Blood had long since passed, petty squabbles were known to pop up from time to time between regional lords. It was in one such squabble that Lord Kinoshita was lured into a trap by a rival lord seeking to consolidate territory for himself. Outnumbered and enraged, Makina’s father pushed deeper and deeper into battle until he was captured. While undefeatable in a fight, superior tactics had won the day against Lord Kinoshita, who was known for his foolhardy ways. Makina too shared this trait and charged in to save her father. The rival Lord’s men aimed their bows, ready to fire, but in a moment of searing hot rage, Lord Kinoshita summoned his last ounce of strength to strike the bowmen down with his bare hands. He commanded his daughter to flee, and she reluctantly listened. Surprisingly, the rival Lord’s men did not pursue. Shortly thereafter, her father was forced to commit seppuku.

Distraught, Makina fled from her family home in the hills near Bukyo, heading for Kugane. For a time, the young Raen retreated to one of the many shrines near the port, taking to the simple existence of a shrine maiden. Her father had always told her, should the worst come to pass, to flee to the shrine closest to Kugane. This particular shrine was protected by the Ishikawa-Ikka, the local Yakuza family, and she quickly established a good rapport with the gangsters. One of the Yakuza lieutenants revealed that Lord Kinoshita had done business with them in the past and had earned their respect. She burned hot with a lust for vengeance, but she knew she had no way to avenge her father without perishing herself. Around the time she reached adulthood, Makina was convinced to leave the shrine and join the Yakuza, knowing that her old way of life was gone. Content to wait out the rival Lord, she poured herself into her new job as a Yakuza enforcer. It was here she encountered a great deal of foreigners, magitek, and other new ideas that she’d never heard of before. There were times that Makina doubted her choices, remembering what her father originally wished for her, and she’d often wonder if things would’ve turned out differently. Then she’d also remember how much more disappointed her father would be if she didn’t stick to the path she’d chosen for herself. So she pressed on and continued to do everything the Wakagashira (regional boss) asked of her, eventually earning the right to the infamous irezumi tattooing process. She started small, but over six years, she was covered in tattoos so much so that it was unmistakable just who she was, Yakuza.

Desiring more freedom for herself, she requested a change in her duties within the family. At first, she was denied, but she refused to take no for an answer, and appealed directly to the Kumicho (the family head). Unexpectedly, he agreed, though it wasn’t in the way Makina imagined. She could shift duties for now, but only if she agreed to become a professional fighter. Since she was such a big earner, it would cover lost revenue in a different way, he explained. Makina accepted and began her fighting career, quickly earning a reputation with her father’s unique fighting style, which turned out to be doubly unique due to her being ambidextrous, favoring her left-hand. Her new job took her all over the world, from her home in the Far East to Eorzea. She was allowed to pick her own fights, provided the prize met a certain gil threshold.

Currently, Makina travels from fight to fight, taking in the sights as she collects gil to send back home to her family.

Her father always lingers in the back of her mind.Some day she'll strike back.

For now, gil will have to satisfy.

The word yakuza (“good for nothing”) is believed to have derived from a worthless hand in a Japanese card game named hana-fuda ("flower cards"): the cards ya-ku-sa (“eight-nine-three”), when added up, give the worst possible total.